Sometimes work can be a slog

I think that when people come on board as product designers/business analysts, they think that the work is exciting. They do not realize that some of the work is absolutely fascinating, such as requirements gathering and analysis, but that there is also a lot of slog work involved – writing the requirement spec, keeping it up-to-date, etc. That of course is life, and I always made a point of not putting off the boring stuff.

As a technical writer more of the work is of the boring type. For example, I have just spent the last week rebranding the complete documentation set for project #3, which was sold to another company and thus has a new look and feel. Working on the new template was fun – making sure it fit our documentation needs, but then came the actual process of moving each document across. Boring is the only word that fits. Thank goodness that part is finally over and the more interesting material should start flowing in once the holiday season is over.

Having said all that, I am of course grateful for any work I receive and get paid for, boring or not!

I sign my third contract

I signed my third contract, just before the Xmas vacation started. I have to admit it was a wonderful contract in that it was straight forward and I understood every word. Amazing (compared to the contract I received from the first company I signed with).

I have already started working, as there is so much to do in too little time. There is a massive rebranding exercise and then I can start modifying documents or creating new material, based on the current state of the product. I hope that the subject experts will put aside time to bring me up-to-date as soon as the holiday season is over.

That is always the major problem when working with R&D. Documentation is only dealt with at the last minute, when the developer in question has finished his work. This leads to overload on the part of the technical writer. We use Agile, so the developments could theoretically be provided to me at the end of each sprint, but that rarely happens. For this release, I am coming on board rather late in the process, so I really need to have the material provided on time. Here’s hoping.

Being sociable

No, I do not mean going out in the evening or weekend and meeting friends, I am talking about one of the changes I am getting used to by working from home. We all know how productive we are (not) in the office, with so many people around us and the endless meetings. I used to come in very early so I would have a couple of hours of uninterrupted work. But talking to people, basic interactions, gossiping in the kitchen, going out for lunch are all missing now that I am at home. I can work harder, I can work whenever I want to and go out and do other stuff during what was once defined work hours, but I do not interact with my workmates. That’s not quite true of course as I do occasionally talk to someone on the phone.

About once every two weeks I go to contract number 1 (my previous place of employment) and make sure that all the documents on the server are the latest versions. Today was one of those days, and I thoroughly enjoyed the gossiping and going out to lunch with good friends.

Is it possible to lose one’s social skills? I think you can, and so I must remember to be sociable from time to time. It is so easy to get lost in work, or a good book, or TV.

Work, work and more work

So if I have to work so hard on my third project, I need to get as much work done as possible on the first project, which has a final release date of beginning Feb. All the basic work has been completed, and I am now waiting to receive feedback (if any) from QA that might change a detail here or there.

In the meantime I have finalized (proofed, PDFd and linked to the documentation set) all those documents I think are OK, in order to cut down on work at the last moment. If QA find any last minute mistakes I will need to re PDF, but it should take much less time as all the prep work has been completed.

The third project is on average 10 hours’ work a day (!), but that takes into account that I receive on time the information required on new features and changes to the system.  I am supposed to go and visit the office, but by the time we closed the deal it was too close to Xmas. Maybe that was lucky in that Europe is totally snowed in. See below for a wonderful photo a friend at the office sent last Friday showing her way to work. They will try and arrange remote access so that I can play with the system and access documents. In the meantime I am busy doing a rebranding exercise.

The third contract saga continues

It currently looks as if I will not take the infamous third job. I feel as if they are playing around with me. I originally proposed a price and they never got back to negotiate with me, so I didn't know if the price I offered was reasonable. Last week I was asked to rephrase my proposal so that it was only for the next release. I quoted a price based on feedback I received from them of the expected amount of work, and sent it off.

My contact tried to reduce the price. I wouldn't mind so much if I knew what the acceptable price per hour was. I originally told my contact how I came by the price I had quoted and told him to talk to me if my information was incorrect. He told me that they were looking for a quote from a local person to put mine in perspective, but I never heard back.

What I thought that they were trying to do was save money by saying that it is only three months’ work. So I wrote an e-mail to my contact and his boss and explained how I got to my price structure and had asked for feedback, and that the amount of work was the same, never mind if I started in November or January, just more hours work in each day. They were supposed to phone me yesterday, but didn't, and if I don't start soon I will not be able to complete the work anyway. So basically I have given up.

Strange, but I feel relieved.

Update: Well it all goes to show – I received a call yesterday and they are offering me a contract for the project. They asked for a slightly lower rate, which is acceptable to me (at least now I know what they expect for an hourly rate). It is actually a project price but based on my assumption of the amount of work involved. So (1) my fears were unfounded; and (2) if I start next week I can still manage the project, albeit by working flat-out (10 hours a day versus the original 6.5). But now I know that I have guaranteed income until I go on my long vacation. After that I’ll need to start acting as a real freelancer and start lobbying for work (and also get used to the idea that some customers will try to make me feel bad about the price quote as part of their strategy).

Pension fund and income tax

When I stopped working, my pension fund was freed by the company I worked for and became my property. This is considered a tax event (iru’a mas) because I was not employed by another company after that. The form stated that I owed taxes on a certain portion of the pension, so it was explained to me that I needed to get the income tax office to sign the form that I was not taking the pension out, but leaving it to mature.

I went into the tax office with the form and my last three pay slips. I expected to see a clerk and took with me something to read while in the queue. I went to the information desk on the ground floor and asked where the tax office information was. The website had said that it was on level 0. She told me to go up two floors and it was on the left, and when I queried the level 0 bit, she said, yes that was level 0 - weird.

Anyway, I found the desk in question and the nice lady took the form and told me that she would pass it on the correct office. She gave me a phone number in case I didn’t hear back from them within one week. This is surprising on two levels, first that she volunteered such useful information, and second that she expected me to receive the signed form within a week. Not only that, a real tax officer phoned me a couple of hours later to confirm the details.

And that was that, I got home 75 minutes after I left it and was in time for breakfast.

Update: I received the signed form today – 2 working days after I handed it in!!!

On a less positive aspect, there was a newspaper article today mentioning that some pension funds had actuarial problems and would need to reduce the monthly pension. My pension fund was listed (with a deficit of 9.3%), and I have only just over one year before it matures (at the previous female retirement age). Now I have to go check this out.

A great five minutes

This weekend we planned on going on a birding trip down south with some friends. We were to meet them at 6:30, which entailed us leaving the house at 4:30 (AM!!!). We went down to the car and the remote wouldn’t open it. Shaul went upstairs for the other key and that also wouldn’t open the car. Once we worked out how to get the manual key out of the remote (we have a Prius), we could get into the car but not start it. It was totally dead.

So we phoned up the friend we were supposed to pick up and others we were supposed to meet and cancelled our participation in the trip. We then waited until 7:30, phoned the Toyota garage who told us not to touch the battery but to be towed in (he said that you don’t touch a Prius). Our insurance company wouldn't agree to this and a technician came out and started the car with leads. We then drove to the garage where they changed the special battery. This took nearly one hour as it is located in a very difficult spot in the car. Luckily the battery was still under a partial guarantee, and we only had to pay 50%. So we became NIS 605 poorer but drove off with a brand new battery for our hybrid.

The upside of this is that because I am now self-employed, two-thirds of my car expenses are recognized, and I also get back some of the VAT. So our day was pretty boring, and not what we had planned, but then I heard rolling thunder getting closer. Eventually it reached us and it also started raining. I went and stood on our sheltered balcony and then suddenly the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down for five minutes. It was such strong rain, that I got Shaul to come out and we stood there together and just watched this (for us) rare phenomenon. The rain hit the dry earth and the smell was heady. For those of you reading this outside Israel, we have had a terrible drought this year and there was no rain in November; we had a few minutes of light rain early last week, and c’est tout. So those were my great five minutes, which I would have missed if I had gone birding.

Walking around Tel Aviv

I have just come back from a lovely walk around the part of Tel-Aviv that was built from 1909 to 1924. The original neighbourhood built outside of Jaffa was called Ahuzat Bayit, and was considered a sleeper neighbourhood for the Jewish merchants working in Jaffa. Many houses no longer exist, others are falling down and a few have been restored, but the atmosphere is charming and quite European. At the northern end – around Rothschild Avenue, it is very leafy with mature trees providing a lot of shade; the noise of the cars does not penetrate and there are wonderful overhanging balconies replete with flowering plants. The whole neighbourhood is full of street cafes – definitely continental in feel.

A couple of weeks ago, in the middle of the dead period for work, we took a walk in and around Jaffa, looking at the original Arab buildings and the Templar buildings. In the renovated railway station (originally providing pilgrims with a way to get from Jaffa to Jerusalem), you actually see both styles right next to each other.

So one of the benefits of working for myself is the ability to take a few hours off and just walk and relearn the city.

Finally some work

When I first started working as a freelancer (all of a month ago), there was a lot of work for the first two or three weeks, and then nothing (as I have written about previously). Now the work is trickling in again and I am finally working a couple of hours a day. That is what I expected on average from these two contracts, but I wonder if it will dry up again. I am still in limbo on the third project, which should have kicked in this week – but as I haven’t seen a contract yet I am not sure when I’ll start. I believe I’ll get the project, which provides a lot of work until March; my main worry is being able to complete the work on time and to a good level if the start date keeps being put off.

So one of the main areas of disquiet so far in being self-employed (and I know that this is self-evident but I am experiencing it first hand) is the uncertainty of when there will be work and how much. I need to work this out…

Staying awake in the evening

This may sound trivial to most but I went to a concert yesterday evening and managed to stay awake throughout (and enjoy it). When I was employed and tried to go out in the evening, I would always collapse half way through. So I take this as one of the benefits of being self-employed.

Maybe I am learning to relax into self-employment?

So maybe I didn’t get the contract

The third and large contract that I was building on to keep me busy (and earning money) looks as if it has fallen through.

First take: I sent a proposal, and always heard back how interested they were and how we would work together, and then silence. This is a company that knows and appreciates my work and has even received many compliments on it from people learning the system for the first time. I am surprised at how gutted I feel. I was always a bit wary, but must have felt that I would get the job because I didn’t start to drum up other business. If I had this long-term contract there wouldn’t have been room for more work.

So now, as the song says, I have to pick myself up, dust myself down, and start all over again.

Second Take: It is the ‘morning after’ and on re-reading the mail I see that there may be project work from them for the next release in March. This gives me breathing space and time to plan for my future after that. Not that this is final either – they want to start negotiating with me, but time is running out for them also if they want that work done well enough. But a project is a closed item so I need to understand what they expect and then provide a price.

Update (and third take): It is now mid-week and I have finally had a call with the person I was originally in contact with. He sounds as enthusiastic as ever, and wants me to be ready to start by the 6^th. That cannot possibly happen as the price has to be agreed on and the contract reviewed and signed. I provided a list of what needs to be achieved in the next 15 weeks, and now I’ll wait again. The Christmas season is ‘drawing nigh’ and I must get the main inputs before then so that the work can be completed on time.

Regarding how I feel about the developments. I was told previously that they would hire someone locally but that would be at a later stage, and in addition to me, as the work required more than a full-time person if one takes into account marketing materials and RFPs. Also any contract as a freelancer can be terminated – that is the difference between me and a full-time employee (as I have to remember). So I have become more sanguine and hope that my work will be so good, and that they have so much of it, that they will reconsider come March. If not, c’est la vie.

More updates later…

Spec’ing

As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, my son came to me with a good idea for a web site. So this week, while waiting for work to come in or to hear something (anything) concerning the third contract, I started fleshing out the requirements.

It has been fun and a great way to both fill my time and contribute to a possible future family fortune J. We need to find a great web developer and graphic artist, algorithm wiz, database designer and data miner. We need them to come on board for free, in return for part of the company. I currently have no idea how to do this and will soon start talking to friends to benefit from their experiences.

When I first started my career my title was systems analyst, and in addition to understanding the functional requirements, I also provided basic database design, with rationalized entities and their attributes. In Israel that is not considered part of the job, and also how we hold databases has changed and we have experts who work with the developers on this. As part of my son’s project I am again looking (at least) at the entities and attributes, as a large part of the added value of the web site will come from data mining. I find this fascinating and challenging and it reminds me of earlier times.

Days with ‘nothing’ to do

There are long stretches in my day that are not filled work-wise. I do not have the calmness required to read a book, and I feel quite jumpy. If I knew that I would not get the third contract, I would hopefully go after every possible project; but I don’t do this – so we have lethargy.

This blog helps, and I also read articles from the various professional forums. But this is not enough. Yesterday my son came to me with a great idea for a new website, so I am now researching the idea and writing up a brief description. That gives me more interest, but I see myself falling into a pit. I had a friend at work, who I shared a room with, and he was let go a year before me. We talk on the phone and occasionally meet and he is always cheerful. The last time we met, he was at the office to pitch a workshop he wanted to hold (and did after I left). This was after I knew that I was leaving. He whispered to me that it isn’t easy going it alone, that there are times when he is down, and then he forces himself to be cheerful and positive about the future. I think I am at that point. I feel ‘teary’ and it really isn’t justified.

I need to make lists of everything I wanted to do while I wasn’t busy – such as to sort out all the books in our library, throw out old clothes from the wardrobes, plan the future renovation of the apartment (on hold until our cat passes away); what else? Originally I kept waiting for cooler weather, so it would be easier; but here we are at the end of November and the weather is still hot. So I think I need to be bold and settle for perspiring. I also need to go on those small trips I keep talking about.

In addition, I need to shrug off the custom that we can only go to visit people at the weekend or evening; or indeed go on small trips. So this afternoon we are going to visit family who live quite far away. I also plan to go on a walking trip around Jaffa soon.

My son (the other one) has stated that this all down to worrying too much over things beyond my control. “Worry not, lest ye be worried,” is his advice.

Supermarket confusion

First some background. Cleaning materials and items such as biscuits, tea, coffee and milk can be claimed for income tax purposes. Originally, I hadn’t intended to claim these, but Ayelet explained to me that the tax man always strikes out some entries, even if all are perfectly legit, and so I should claim everything – so he causes less damage.

So Shaul and I went to our supermarket. I had explained to Shaul the procedure, but I must have made a botch-up of the explanation, and he mixed items up at the check-out point. I got nervous and started rearranging the items and kept saying to him (loudly) “No, not that; yes, yes that,” and so on. He swore never to go shopping with me again. Finally everything was split into two bills, and then I had to get a formal receipt at another desk, which took time and I could feel his patience stretching even thinner. Finally I was the proud possessor of a formal invoice for the recognized goods.

And I have to repeat this next time we go shopping. Hopefully we will get used to the routine and the tension will be reduced.

Wireless worries

I have a wireless router, I have a supposedly fast connection (it never is even with only one PC attached), so theoretically there shouldn’t have been a problem adding my laptop to the network. Sure.

First-off I had protected my PC (running Windows XP) so that it could not be accessed by external users, but even though I knew my own password, I couldn’t get the router to accept the laptop (Windows 7).  I also couldn’t access the router – the default user and password (as supplied in the documentation) didn’t work. So I phoned the phone company (who provided the router) and found that it was best to pay 9.90 shekels a month for technical support. As this is no longer a private affair, I agreed to this. It took a long while, but eventually the laptop was set up and could see both the router and the printer. In order to be efficient, I was sitting with the laptop next to the PC, thus was not aware that there would be other problems.

When I took the laptop back to my office, I noticed that the signal strength was poor to fair, and often I couldn’t access the router at all. In previous posts I mentioned that to download updates (or anything large) I would move the laptop to be near the router. In addition, the printer was always offline unless I was right next to the router. Recently it just became too much and there was one day when I could hardly access the internet. I went onto the PC network map and saw that I had intruders accessing my (by now unsecured) network. So I marked them as intruders and phoned the phone company. This time they first secured the network so I would no longer have intruders, and made it so I could still access the router from my laptop. But that didn’t solve the problem of the poor signal, and I was recommended to buy an extender (they call it a repeater - 9.90 shekels a month for 24 months – special offer).

So off I went to town and waited for a long time in a queue to buy the extender. I got it home, installed it and could not find a convenient place near an electric outlet that could reliably receive a signal from the router. I was getting really fed up at this point. I found an extension cable and eventually located a reasonable spot (near the door) in our guest bedroom (the extender has to be approximately mid-way between the router and the laptop) that received a good signal from the router. The only problem is that we now have cables snaking across the guest bedroom (apologies to children who have left home and had their bedrooms reassigned).

Okay, so finally I received a good signal, the download speed was improving, but now the printer was offline. Another call to the phone company, we redefined the printer, and would you believe it I think that I now have proper and reasonable wireless connectivity!

Startup problems

I don’t mean my problems, but those of startups that started small and have suddenly expanded. One of my two contracts is for a startup whose progress I have followed closely as a friend of mine was very involved with it. There were only a handful of people working and they all fitted into 2 rooms. Gradually they started developing a product, won awards, were asked to provide pilots and realized that they needed to grow up. So they employed marketing and sales personnel and increased the development head count.

Previously the original guys did everything and felt that they owned the process and the product. That, as we all know is a great and giddy feeling. But today that has all changed and there are actual heads for most jobs. The original team has to learn to pass across responsibility and lose some of the control. Not an easy thing to do.

I went in for a meeting and all I could see was lack of communication and minor political in-fighting of who is responsible for what. I mentioned this, saying that it is much easier to notice such stuff when you are on the outside looking in, gave a few examples that I’d seen, and I sincerely hope that they take the comment on board and sort themselves out quickly.

So what am I doing to reaffirm myself?

Well first off Shaul and I walk to the beach most mornings. This is when the shadows are still long and gentle, the waves gently lapping and the birds shaking themselves out of the trees. I used to go to the gym at lunchtime (double-whammy, not only do you exercise but you also eat healthily afterwards), but that is now far away and I hope to replace the exercise by walking, isometrics and stretching. But the walk to the beach is much more than exercise; it is a balm to the soul – both sight and sound. Traffic is still scarce (except for bikes and joggers) and we have time to chat with each other.

I started doing yoga again, but must have overdone it and both my back and knees complained; so we’ll need to take a different approach on that. My yoga teacher is my wonderful daughter-in-law, so not only do I have a yoga lesson but we spend quality time together.

I signed up to audit a university course and find that fun and mildly stimulating. This weekend we went to the Hula. It is that time of year when there are thousands of cranes coming in and even some pelicans are still around. We got up at 3:30 so we could be there at 6:30 to see the cranes perform mass take-offs to go feeding. The noise and the arrow formations are something else. Later, when it started to warm up, the pelicans took to the air. They are massive and it felt like the air force was exercising. There must have been a couple of hundred pelicans, in groups of 10 or so.

I promised myself that I’d catch up on my reading – but that has not happened yet, though I do read the newspaper (not just skim the headlines). My reading list is long and varied, from books trying to make sense of the Middle East, Richard Dawkins, a new (for me) Umberto Eco collection – Turning Back the Clock, and background reading on Antarctica. We are going on a 7-week voyage at the end of the season to the Antarctic Peninsula and then up the South Atlantic towards the Equator. Seven years ago we visited Antarctica from New Zealand, and this will round off the subject.

Something else is cooking. I now cook quick and healthy meals (even tasty) at lunchtime. I got used to eating out, but however good the food was, I had no control over the amount of oil and salt used. My waistline reflected this. I enjoy the cooking and it doesn’t take up too much time. It is usually based on the premise that there are 1001 ways to cook chicken breast. These are quick to cook and the marinade makes all the difference and stops the boredom. Anyway, it makes me feel good about myself (that I am looking after myself) and that is reaffirmation in my book.

Paying VAT for the first time

There is something in my character that requires me to fill in forms before the deadline, to be legally exact, and generally be a model citizen. Boring.

I went online to register my VAT returns (is that the correct term?). I had signed up to do it online, rather than wait in a queue at the post office. When I registered with the VAT authority I was told that my first return should be for October, and that I had until mid-November to do this. I felt confident, I had entered all my expenditures for October, calculated the VAT on items with depreciation and items without depreciation, items with 100% VAT and items with 2/3rds recognized, etc., etc.

Somehow I ended up at a page where they wanted me to enter each receipt manually. That didn’t sound right and I correctly panicked and phoned Ayelet (my tax advisor). I had ended up at the wrong place. She guided me through the process, which was as simple as I had originally thought, and voila it was completed. But lucky I phoned her. Because of the fact that I only start earning in November, I had nothing to balance the VAT I had spent on my purchases; so I had to put a zero in all the boxes and I’ll report on both VAT spent and VAT received in mid-January.

Now I have to work out how to pay national insurance online.

Finally working

Once all the formalities were out of the way I could start working – thank goodness. Where did all this equanimity (that I hope you have felt in previous blog entries) come from? The last time I was unemployed (ten years ago) I was in quite a state. I have been mulling over this and have come to the conclusion, that it is because I knew that I had excellent chances of landing three contracts that would fill my time. Even though I have yet to conclude the third one, I have been mostly positive about it during the last month or so. Also the excitement of getting everything ready and the novelty of ‘being on holiday’ contributed. I guess that this is unfair – me taking a giant step in a new direction, but with some sort of safety net.

Let me make a small diversion. My father came from a rich family in Germany and he was the black sheep and instead of university was sent to train to become a plumber. That saved his life; because he was a plumber he was allocated a treasured ‘certificate’ by the British and escaped Nazi Germany at the last moment.

Ten years ago I had been recommended to train as a technical writer – to become a sort of plumber. This enabled me to find the job I held for the last eight years, and also to feel confident that I could go it alone. There are many firms who need technical writing and cannot afford, or do not need, someone full time. Obviously the large organizations have a team of writers, but I have never worked for such a company. So I really need to thank that lady way back then, from the unemployment agency, for enabling this.

Having said all that, my first love is product design. I love watching a client to see what they actually do to complete their mission, listen to them explain their needs, basically elicit requirements. Then comes the analysis and finally the design. I say finally, but it doesn’t stop there; I then work with developers to ensure we get a quality product. This sounds waterfall, but it is easier to explain the way I worked until quite recently when we went Agile.

But product design (as I have decided to brand this – amongst a wealth of available titles) is a more problematic career – both in getting a job and freelancing. I have been very lucky to have been offered a small contract where I can do this – at least in a small measure.

But let’s get back to when I actually started working again at the beginning of the month. There was a lot to catch up on with my old company – a patch needed to be released and there was ongoing work with the next major release. I was quickly brought up-to-date with the requirements and got going. I work mostly from home, using e-mail and the occasional call to understand the requirements and have my work reviewed. I visit the office every so often to move source files to the server - I cannot send RoboHelp projects over the Internet.

I needed to copy and update an old document to one of the company’s templates, and realized that I hadn’t brought them home. They were sent to me in a zip file, which made me realize that I needed to download WinZip. My other company wanted me to write a user guide for a wonderful desk-top product (that I wish I had designed J); so I needed SnagIt. I wonder what else I have forgotten to buy.

I caught up quite quickly and now the work is more sporadic. The contracts are for about 8 hours work a week for each, but this is an average - so it can be less most weeks, and then much more immediately before a release. I should be enjoying the rest, but I feel bothered when there are days with nothing to do. Some days I work 6 or 7 hours, and then there are others with hardly anything. I could read, but I am missing the internal quiet I need to enjoy this. If I get the European contract I will be so busy that I know that I will long for this period of calm. Am I never satisfied? I am exaggerating a bit and enjoy my new-found freedom, but the fact is that I cannot read a book.

Accoutrements (Paperwork and Website)

So now I provide a service to two local companies. I have designed a spreadsheet where I can register each day that I work – the exact hours and minutes, and a description of the work done. The spreadsheet calculates the total and the VAT, and that will go to the bookkeeper in each company.

In addition, I found a printing house relatively close by and, via e-mail, closed the details on what should be printed on the official invoice cum receipt. For Israeli companies, where I charge VAT, this needs to be a printed booklet, each invoice numbered and with all my details. I picked them up on October 31^st and now feel that I am truly self-employed. That was the last item on my to-do list – except of course actually working.

I spent hours researching web sites that offered the types of services I want to offer, to see what messages they were providing, what seemed to work visually, and what didn’t. I tried to make sense of it all and think about the message I wanted to convey and how to differentiate myself.

And then I started thinking. If I get the three contracts I am aiming for, I won’t have time for small projects on the side, and am not yet ready to hire others, so why do I need to promote myself? So there you have it, I stopped working on the website, and only if the European contract falls through will I continue with this project.

What I did do was add a byline to my e-mail signature “Helping organizations design and document excellent products”. I also updated my LinkedIn profile, and now I have this blog…

Whoopee – a second contract

I have a business friend who knows my work, both as a product designer and as a technical writer. He is working for an innovative startup and has asked me to help design their products and produce documentation. This is not a large contract (though it should be) as they are seriously cash-strapped, but the work is really interesting. Refreshingly, the contract was a simple 1-pager. So now I am theoretically busy 25% of the working week, though I can see this creeping up to much more.

Now I am worried about the 3^rd contract – seriously worried. This is with the company that was sold off and they know the quality of my work. I provided a detailed proposal for the contract and was told that it was enthusiastically received, and then silence. This is a contract, for technical writing, with a European company. It would be for 100+ hours a month (rounding up my work week very nicely if it isn’t too large). I asked a friend in that country to find the going hourly rate and then I lowered it a bit (see the post on how to charge). Maybe I overpriced myself? But why don’t they come back and negotiate with me? Agonizing questions. How often can I bother them and ask them what’s happening?

My second visit to the National Insurance Institute

I needed to declare myself as self-employed and the most important item, according to all my friends and advisors, was to notify the NII about this change.

So I took a bus into town to visit the NII and declare that I was becoming self-employed from November 1^st. This time I was wiser and went on a day that they were open. My accountant helped me fill in the form and off I went. It was not painful! I had to wait in line around 15 minutes and then the clerk spoke to me for 2 minutes, checked the form and sent me on my way. She even gave me a form to send them if I changed the estimate of my income.

The big catch is how much to declare that you will earn so that the correct (or reasonably close estimate) amount of national insurance is paid? How am I supposed to know if I don’t have firm contracts yet? Hence the form. If you pay too little then interest will be charged on the delta.

I then phoned the unemployment office and informed them that from November 1^st I would no longer be unemployed. The head honcho told me what details to put in the fax and that was it.

So finally I ticked off all the bureaucratic items I had on my list and was ready to open shop.

One side effect of the need to go to car-unfriendly places is that I take a bus. I have now learned that Tel-Aviv has an ‘Oyster’ system where you place the card on a contact pad, and that you can fill it up on the bus, but can only make the original purchase at the major bus terminal. Also, you have all these interesting people sitting opposite and around you and walking in the street. It reminded me of when I was a teenager, sitting at the top of a double-decker bus going to or from school, looking out of the window and seeing how people walked, handled themselves, and generally interacted with their surroundings. I used to make up short biographies of these people. My excuse is that I was a budding actress at the time, but really I just find people fascinating.

Update: I just received a payment booklet in the post to pay for national insurance and health fund contributions. Together they make up 12.5% of my income…Ouch.

My Adobe experience

The firm where I bought the Adobe products deducted the money up-front, so I was sure that they were on the way, especially as the lady who took my order said that I would receive them Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week. But when they didn’t show up I was told that they hadn’t yet arrived in the country. SO WHY DID YOU DEDUCT THE MONEY?

Finally Acrobat arrived and I tried to install it, but failed dismally. The technical person I was referred to thought I was a female moron, but finally understood that there was a problem with the CD, and a new copy was dispatched the following day. That did install cleanly. Now, I installed it on Windows 7, where I have MS Office 2010 installed. I then tried to PDF a test document and Word constantly crashed. I posted a question on the Adobe user forum and was warned that Acrobat 9 only works with MS 2007, which luckily I had installed on my virtual XP environment (for RoboHelp); so I uninstalled Acrobat from 7 and reinstalled it in XP. Now it works!

But, I was told (by the forum) that I needed to check and download updates. I couldn’t get this to work until I figured out that I was too far from my router (that will be another topic). I moved the laptop to be next to the router and succeeded in downloading all the heavy updates.

A few days later RoboHelp arrived. I knew that I had a problem with Windows 7 and MS Office 2010, so I installed it directly to the XP environment. This was a better experience and I also managed to download the updates (again by moving the laptop). But a test compilation was agonizingly slow. I realized that I would need to copy all my RoboHelp projects (and I have many) to the XP environment if I wanted it to work at an acceptable speed.

So these are my teething problems, and I managed to sort everything out with one week to spare. Now I am ready to open shop and create PDF files and online helps.

Shopping

Okay, so maybe I am not a patient shopper when it comes to clothes, but hardware and software is a pleasure. I knew what my requirements were and spent considerable time researching.  And of course once I bought the laptop, every one told me what a mistake I’d made. Because I have many heavy programs open at the same time, and compile large documents (in either RoboHelp or Acrobat), I decided that I needed an i7. The only one I found that didn’t have a built-in Hebrew operating system (death for professionals writing in English), was HP, and everyone says don’t buy HP laptops. So I ignored them and just pray that I am the exception to the apparent rule. We have had an HP desktop for many years and I have never had a better (or quieter) PC, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Then I had to buy everything else – an external hard disk for backups, extended HP warranty to 3 years, MS Office, etc. Oh, and I had to upgrade Windows Premium to Ultimate so that I could run a virtual XP environment (necessary for RoboHelp). I know, Professional was enough, but there was nary a copy of Professional in the whole chain, so I paid an extra NIS 250 for Ultimate.

I was very naive and thought it would take the bright young things at the store one hour to upload the software. I came back the following afternoon.

Finally, I was recommended a software firm where I could buy Acrobat 9 Pro and RoboHelp 8, both Adobe products. They are seriously expensive, especially RoboHelp. They took nearly two weeks to arrive, but that is another story.

Accountants and income tax

I am the proud owner of an accountant. I signed on with a firm of accountants and was assigned to a wonderful and patient tax advisor, who answered all my banal questions. I had been told to go out and buy a ledger, but how did I fill it in? I was very organized and came with a set of written questions, such as how do I register parking (take the amount, divide by 1.16 to get the amount before VAT and enter that, then multiply it by 0.16 to get the VAT and enter that in the correct column). I didn’t know what was a small or large issue – they were all the same to me, and bless her that she kept a straight face and good humour when answering me.

Did you know, at least in Israel, that if you turn one room into an office then you can write off 20 to 25% of running costs for the apartment (depending on the number of rooms it has)? This includes electricity and municipal taxes, but excludes (why?) water and gas.

She also told me how to fill in the VAT payment form (which I plan to do online), separating out large purchases where the value is depreciated (such as the laptop) and small purchases (such as stationary). Also there are all sorts of rules on how much VAT you get back, depending on the type of expense (Internet is 50%).

Finally Ayelet (my savior) wrote a letter and filled in a form so that I can start paying income tax (or maybe even receive a refund). The dream of being self-employed is getting closer with each bureaucratic item that I tick off my list.

How do you charge for your services?

How I agonized over that, and I still don’t know if I have got it right. First up I started searching for tips on how to price myself. All the sites I found were for Americans, and various algorithms were provided. The result was always around 65 Euro. That is a lot, and in Israel I can’t hope to get this.

I managed to get some insight from two Israeli technical writers and was told that the market is bad. One told me that she charges 180 Shekels and people tell her that she is expensive. But I had worked out that I needed more than that as a minimum.

What do you need to take into account?

1.   In all probability that you will not be working 40 (or more) hours a week, thus need to spend time promoting yourself;

2.   All sick leave and holidays are at your expense, and thus need to be factored in;

3.   Your pension fund and loss of work ability now need to be totally paid by you; Not mentioning the ‘keren hishtalmut’ we have here – basically a tax-free savings plan provided by the employer;

4.   Costs – major costs, running costs, accountant, etc., etc. If you are a developer, it will be more because you will probably need professional indemnity insurance.

When you talk to people here, they say your actual cost to the company is 140%, but you need more, because that takes into account full-time work and no running costs. So I made my calculations and reckoned that for my Israeli contracts I’d ask for double the hourly rate I previously earned. They knew my work, I knew the field, and learning was minimal. I don’t know how well that will go down with companies that do not know me, but so far so good and the price has been accepted.

But Europe is another question. As I said, the cost I kept ending up with was 65 Euro. I asked a friend to find out the going rate in the county I was interested in, and got back the same number. I was told that the rate I was charging Israeli companies was a rate for beginners.

So to sweeten the pill I came up with a sliding rate, based on a retainer. I reckoned that the more work guaranteed up-front, the less I need to look for other work, so the price can be lower.

1.   I provided various options with and without a retainer, and with the retainer varying in size (100 or 150 hours).

2.   I also offered that any work above the retainer (if that model was accepted) would be charged at 5 Euros less per hour.

This obviously can only work for a large contract offering continuous work. Project work will need to be charged differently. From my reading I understand that it is better to charge per project than by the hour.

Anyway, my proposal was received graciously, and they are now waiting for a quote from a local person to see if mine is reasonable. So please keep your fingers crossed for me and I’ll update the blog with whatever the outcome is.

I sign my first contract

So I held a farewell party at work. What do you say at such events? Thank you for firing me? I genuinely loved my fellow workers and I hope that came across in the ‘speech’.

I had been negotiating with work that I come back as a freelancer. Before the party I sat with them and we finalized the details and I signed my first contract. It isn’t much – around 22 hours a month, but it is income and in my comfort zone. What was nice was that I could then provide the positive slant to my leaving (including occasionally coming into the office to see everyone)  – how I could go to the beach with Shaul, work whenever I fancied and for as long as I wanted. That is how I see it, and I hope that I have time for myself. (Really? Let’s see how that fits in with reality.)

I work in high-tech and we are basically slaves. Yes I earned a lot, but I worked such long hours. Life was work and not much else. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my work and need to work to affirm myself (yes I know that isn’t healthy, but its true). So I am really hoping that I manage to strike the right balance – enough work to keep me happy and provide an income, but not too much – I want to have time to relearn about me.

What do I want to do? Well first I have started walking to the beach in the early morning with Shaul. I also hope, once the weather cools down, to go on small trips with him – maybe to walk around a part of the city and see what has happened to it during the last few years while I have been busy ignoring it, maybe to go birding in a small reserve. Just to spend a few hours outside in the middle of the week when sane people should be working hard indoors.

TIP: don’t be afraid to ask others. The original contract was seriously OTT for a technical writer. I checked in some forums and received confirmation that I did not need, for example, professional indemnity insurance, and managed to have this removed from the contract. There are many wonderful people out there who are willing to provide advice if you just ask.

Ageism musings

The first time I encountered ageism was when I was in my mid-fourties. I remember going to an interview (run by an outside agency) for a project manager position (or whatever they called it back then), and the guy interviewing me (older than me) asked if it wasn’t problematic working with young people. I was flabbergasted; what did he mean – I was young! Obviously I had never felt any problem age-wise with my team mates, so found the question shocking. But he was right, many bright young people, starting their own companies, prefer to work with people their own age. Luckily there was another company that wanted my skills and didn’t look at my age.

Don’t get me wrong, I was not fired this time around because of my age. The problem is that people in their late fifties have no chance of getting a job. Forget late fifties, what about late fourties?

The last time I was in this position was nearly 10 years ago when the hi-tech bubble burst and everything went belly-up. I have a rock-solid CV, but not one response was received (barring the very occasional rejection letter), even for those jobs where the description looked as if it was written for me. Even worse was that none of my acquaintances in the field was starting a new project and needed me to define requirements.

I remember that as a very black time, I kept thinking I would get a job and so didn’t do anything else that would nurture my spirit. There was no income, so I was loath to spend money connecting to the Internet (expensive dial-up in those days), buying books or auditing a university course. Shaul, on the other hand, has been unemployed since he was 60 and has a much healthier take than me. Admittedly he knows that he won’t get another job (doesn’t even want one) so doesn’t look and won’t feel rejected. He also buys books, attends two courses a semester, surfs the Internet visiting far-off places that we may one day visit, and basically enjoys life.

Luckily my lady at the unemployment office saved me. A course was opening in technical writing. She explained to me that TW is much less age-related and that I would get an additional three months unemployment benefit while taking the course. So I took it and found it very easy (I had been writing documentation for years); but now I learned the rules: short sentences, simple words, active present tense. (Obviously there is more, but those are the basic rules.)

First I worked for the company that trained me and gained confidence in my abilities. That was baptism in fire. I was sent to a start-up, developing a telecom software switch, which required a user manual so they looked serious. Two senior writers had been in before me and failed. Maybe it was too early in the process, maybe they were writers and not techies, I don’t know, but I studied telecommunications over that weekend, filled myself with jargon and walked into their office with bravado. They assigned a patient product manager to me and within one month they had their professional looking user guide.

During the final week or so of the project, I started being interviewed for a full-time position, which I eventually got (with a lot of thanks to a great recommendation from where I was currently placed), and I worked there for over 8 years – a record for me who always worked for fragile startups.

So back to ageism. Yes it is true that my industry is full of young people, but we oldies can find our niches. This time around I am more aware of the problem (and it has obviously become worse by 10 years) and so have decided to become self-employed. I am hoping that my age is less of a barrier when a firm cannot (or doesn’t want to) employ someone full-time. I hope that this blog will reflect the journey and any successes I have on the way.

My first visit to the National Insurance Institute (NII)

I had to fill in a form that I was unemployed and requesting unemployment benefit. I received the form from work (to show that I had been working enough time to qualify for unemployment), and filled in the rest. I put it in an envelope and took the bus to the NII. I was amazed that there was no queue and then the guard told me that the office was closed to visitors on Wednesdays (also Monday for readers who need it). But he told me what to write on the front of the envelope and I posted it in a box.

Miraculously, a few days later I received a letter stating that the form had been received. A very nice lady even phoned me up and told me that I had forgotten to fill in that I had already registered with the unemployment office. I told her that indeed I had and she dictated to me (in Hebrew) the contents of the fax she needed. Shaul checked my spelling and off it went.

Now let’s see if I get any unemployment benefit for October. They deduct the first 5 days that I am unemployed, so I don’t expect to receive too much. The maximum one can receive is the average wage – just under NIS 8,000 at the moment.

One of the ‘positive’ aspects is that if the business fails within 24 months of first registering as unemployed, I can claim whatever benefit I still have left – maximum is 175 days and I used up 16 in October (21 minus 5), so that leaves me with 159 days, or around seven months. Let’s hope I don’t need it.

Step 2 – register with VAT

Being a freelancer entails purchasing equipment - in my case a really strong laptop and software. But in order to get back the VAT I needed to register myself as self-employed with the VAT office. This was my first priority as I knew that I needed the laptop as soon as possible.

The first job was finding which office I belonged to – finally achieved. I downloaded the VAT form and saw that I didn’t understand anything! So I phoned them up and asked what I needed to bring and when I could come. Lucky I did, because the lady asked if I had a joint account with my husband. If so, he needed to come with me and sign that he agreed to VAT being deducted from our joint account.

So that was nice – quality time with Shaul on the way there and while waiting our turn. (Even nicer was that he found parking and not me in the busy part of Tel Aviv (with no convenient buses) where the VAT office is located.)

Finally, it was our turn and we sat in a cramped office with a lady who didn’t know where anything was because it wasn’t her office. Whoever’s office it was, they liked travelling and we saw good photos of Tibet on the wall.

I explained that I was setting up the business this month, but would only start working next month. She helped me fill in the form, and asked me what my annual expected income would be. Ah – if only I knew. Obviously it depends on the work I find, but what she really meant was would I earn more than NIS 73,300 (about $20k or £12,200) a year. If so I could register as a business that charges VAT and I can also claim back any VAT I paid.

She also wanted to know what I would be doing – I told her product design and technical writing – but she understood technical writing (not the only one who has no idea (or is confused) about product design/product management/business analysis, etc.,) and so that was registered as the major item.

I walked out of there as the proud owner of a certificate saying that I was authorized to charge VAT. Not only that, I took the parking ticket and registered it as a recognized expense with a VAT component – I learn fast.

Step 1 – register as unemployed

Ok – that sounds weird. I stopped working on September 30^th, but I knew that it would take a while to organize myself as a freelancer and actually have any work, so the first thing I did was to go to the unemployment office and register myself as unemployed. I hoped that it would be for a maximum of one month, so I went there with a positive attitude and patience. Most fascinating was watching what was going on around me. Many mothers came there with their small children and it was fun to see them crawling around; you saw groups of people talking quietly amongst themselves, probably trading experiences, and in the far left corner we heard raised voices.

Let me explain. In the Tel Aviv unemployment office, they separate between academics and non-academics. The academics were quiet, some with a resigned attitude, probably harder to find work; but at the far left of the hall some people felt that the clerk in charge of their case was being unfair. One man was partially lame and he was shouting that they were not taking that into account with the posting they were offering him. Trouble is that if you refuse an offer they can stop paying you unemployment benefit.

The information clerk at the entrance had asked me a few questions and then told me which booth to go to. This turned out to be the head of the academics section – maybe because of my advanced age. Outside her booth there was a written list and I added my name at the bottom. Then I tried to find the person who was immediately before me. From that point on it was my job to watch her every move so I’d know when it was my turn. But she foiled me. Suddenly she disappeared inside the booth. I was really pleased – the line had moved much faster that I thought it would. But no, she had simply persuaded the two people before her on the list to let her in earlier. But by then I was standing up and near the booth, so people started coming over and drawing me into conversations. How long have you been unemployed? What do you do? What is the head clerk like (my question)? One girl, a lawyer by profession, told me that the clerk was very tough and never smiled – it really did look like that when you looked at her interacting with the people before me.

Finally it was my turn. She was really lovely, smiled at me and gave me advice. Maybe it was because I explained that I was hopefully only going to be unemployed for a few weeks. She told me to let her know when I stopped being unemployed, and that was it. I was free to go home. It took all of five minutes.

Learning to be free

So why did I name this Jacqui’s Quest? I think it is because I have started a learning process. One that maybe I was forced into, but is nevertheless very welcome, and something I should have initiated many years ago. My sons have always told me to ‘go it alone’, but the comfort of having a monthly salary was just too great.

So what happened? The major product was sold off and there was not enough work to justify me working full-time. Yes – I was fired. But there was light at the end of the tunnel and I decided to become a freelancer and offer my services to my old company and others who know my work. If I have to, I will learn to promote myself and actively search out projects.

I want to use this space to log the legal processes I have to/have gone through and also my personal learning process. As most of the legal stuff is behind me, I’ll condense it into a few entries, and then from that point on start writing as I learn.

I hope you enjoy the journey with me, and if you want to leave a comment with advice (or encouragement), it will be most welcome.